A street in the Parisian suburb of Saint Antoine is the scene of chaos as a crowd gathers in front of a wine-shop to scoop up pools of wine spilled from a broken cask. When the wine is gone, the people resume their everyday activities. Left behind, however, are the stains of the red wine on the street and the people's hands, faces, and feet, foreshadowing the blood that will be spilled there in later years.
Inside the wine-shop, Monsieur and Madame Defarge converse with three other men, all called "Jacques."Monsieur Defarge sends the men upstairs, to a chamber on the fifth floor. Meanwhile, Mr. Lorry and Lucie have entered the shop and, after a brief discussion with Monsieur Defarge, they follow him upstairs to the fifth floor chamber, where the three Jacques are peering inside through holes in the wall. Monsieur Defarge unlocks the door, and he, Mr. Lorry, and Lucie enter the room. Inside the darkened room, they see a white-haired man sitting on a bench making shoes.
